Chuck Schumer: Vladimir Putin Is Behaving Like A 'Schoolyard Bully'

By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A senior Democratic senator said on Sunday that the U.S.-Russia relationship had become "poisonous" and urged President Barack Obama to consider moving next month's Group of 20 summit away from the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Charles Schumer, the U.S. Senate's third ranking Democrat and a close Obama ally, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to antagonize the United States by granting American fugitive Edward Snowden asylum for one year. "President Putin is behaving like a schoolyard bully," Schumer said on the CBS television talk show "Face the Nation." "In my experience, I've learned unless you stand up to that bully, they ask for more and more and more." He said Obama should cancel plans to meet Putin in Moscow for a bilateral summit next month that was expected take place during the U.S. president's trip to Russia for the G20 gathering. Schumer said he also would call on Obama to "urge our allies, if it were possible," to try to move the G20 summit from St. Petersburg to another country. The White House has left unclear whether Obama would stop in Moscow after Russia granted asylum to Snowden, a former intelligence contractor wanted in the United States for leaking details of government surveillance programs. Schumer said that because of the Snowden matter, "the relationship between the United States and Russia ... is more poisonous than at any time since the Cold War." Also speaking on CBS, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said he agreed with Schumer that there should be consequences for Russia's actions. Ryan, a former vice presidential candidate and influential voice within his party, accused the Obama administration of appeasement with its policy, known as the "reset," begun in 2009, of trying to improve U.S.-Russia relations. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the ABC program "This Week" that Russia's actions were disappointing. (Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Politicians React To NSA Collecting Phone Records

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the court order for telephone records was part of a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice, the Associated Press reported.
"It’s called protecting America," Feinstein said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said "the administration owes the American public an explanation of what authorities it thinks it has."

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement:
"This type of secret bulk data collection is an outrageous breach of Americans’ privacy."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he was "glad" the NSA was collecting phone records.
"I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States," Graham said in an interview on "Fox and Friends."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) also claimed that reports of the NSA collecting phone records was "nothing particularly new."
"Every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this," Chambliss said. "And to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information."

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) found the NSA collecting phone records "troubling."
"The fact that all of our calls are being gathered in that way -- ordinary citizens throughout America -- to me is troubling and there may be some explanation, but certainly we all as citizens are owed that, and we're going to be demanding that," Corker said.